All right, this is getting annoying, I'm sure something must be wrong with my smoking technique. I just bought a new stem today because my old one was down to maybe a third of it's original size, and wouldn't let me inhale long enough before starting to burn my lips and fingers (even though I put a little rubber tube on the smoking end of the glass tube). I know it's not the quality of the crack either, because it's damn good yellow, hard rock that makes that nice snapping sound when broken, sometimes it feels like I almost need a freaking hammer to break off a little chunk (I can also stick it in my mouth for a while without it falling apart whatsoever).
So I figure it's either my technique, or the fact that I'm using steel wool instead of real brillo, but I doubt that makes much of a difference. I usually break off a quarter off a ten dollar rock, pack some brillo in there so it's nice and tight, stick the rock in there, hold the pipe upwards, then start putting a direct flame to the product, on and off for a few seconds at a time, until I stop hearing that crackling noise, then I just hold the flame to the pipe directly for 10 seconds or so, slowly tilting the pipe downwards, trying to hit all of the crack melted to the steel wool, until I just can't take a single more breath (of course, all the while inhaling at a constant slow, calm pace), hold it in for 10 to 20 seconds, and finally slowly exhale through my nose. I usually try to wait 20 minutes or more between hits to get full effects each time, instead of hitting the pipe every 3 minutes like a crackhead. Alas, I still can't manage to get big, fat hits, even when I load bigger rocks into the stem. As a matter of fact, it seems I waste more when I put larger rocks in there, because I can't hit it all in one breath, while doing just small pebbles at a time seems to be more efficient.
Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong? What is the end-all-be-all crack-smoking technique to get the most out of it, using a straight shooter glass pen/rose (wish I could afford those nice Pyrex ones that don't break and have to be replaced every other week) and some chore?